Isabella smiled, and Nora’s heart melted. Isabella, she saw with sudden clarity, brought enough love to encompass all of them.
“Read to me, please,” the little one said.
Nora slipped onto the bed and opened the book. She pulled Isabella close and kissed the top of her head.
The house lay silent when she finally took her candle and made her way down the dark corridor to her lonely sitting room. Needlework didn’t appeal. She would put it away. There were books on a shelf in her room. She would read herself to sleep.
She opened the door to find the sitting room farfrom empty. Jamie leaned on the mantel, staring at the fire. He raised his head when she opened the door and put out a hand.
“Jamie!”
His smile, soft and welcoming, warmed her to her toes. She saw sadness in his eyes as well but refused to think about it.Not tonight, she told herself.
“Come, sit. You must be weary,”he said.
He took her hand, tiny in his. Her slight tremor didn’t prevent her from gripping him back firmly.That’s my courageous girl. What a day you’ve had.He led her to her chair.
Puzzlement clouded her features. “I thought you had work to do.” She blinked up at him.
“I have lessons to prepare. I can do that in the sitting room.” He stood looking down at her, still holding her hand. Her adorable face tempted him, and the loneliness he saw there battered his heart. He couldn’t leave her alone on her wedding night, even on a false one.Surely,he thought, I can spend an hour with her without letting lust overwhelm what little sense I have left.
“Let’s sit together,” he said out loud. “Me with my work, you with your needlework.” He wagged his eyebrows until she chuckled. “Like old married people.” His hand felt empty when he let go, took a step back, and leaned his elbow on the mantel.
The little wren smiled, but her smile wavered when her hand fluttered over to pick up her work.
“I didn’t expect you. When you left earlier, you told me you were leaving me,” she said. “To my work, that is. Leaving me to my work.” She looked taut, like a spring coiled too tight.
“Did I? I went to fetch something,” he said.
She looked up at that, raising her eyes in question.
He reached into his coat. He thanked God and Wentworth hehad at least a few coins of his own. Silver paper covered the box he pulled out, but only one tasteful bow surrounded it. It fit in his palm.
“As you see, it is something small,” he said, “A trifle to remember our ‘momentous day.’” She turned it over in her fingers.
“Wait, wife,” he said. “First a toast to our wedding, then gifts.”
“Gifts, Jamie? A toast?”
“It may not have been much of a wedding, but we deserve some celebration, don’t you think? For enduring it, if nothing else.”
He poured two glasses of rich red wine and handed her one. She looked at it suspiciously.
“Not sherry, I agree, but much better. You’re a big girl. Try it.”
To his joy, she did. She took one sip and then another. “Good!” she said, eyes wide.
“Don’t look so shocked. People have savored it for centuries without civilization going into decline.”
“Don’t be absurd,” she said and took a bigger swallow to prove that he misjudged her. His newly acquired handkerchief rescued her gown when she choked. One more reason to be grateful for the blasted money,he thought.
Nora’s face turned red, not entirely, he thought, from choking when he rubbed her back. He pulled his hand away.
“Sip slowly, please,” he said. She nodded, and he stepped away.
“To our marriage, such as it is,” he pronounced, raising his glass.
She saluted him in turn and took a dainty sip. “Such as it is,” she repeated. She put down her glass, raised the little box in her lap, and waved it at him.
